Drainage Contractor November 2017 : Page 29

“Excellence by Experience” Bower's Great Lakes Inter-Drain, Inc. Your Dealer for Inter-Drain Plows, Trenchers and Parts Drainage water recycling systems involve the diversion of excess surface and tile drainage water into on farm ponds. As seen at this location in Michigan, one pump can accumu-late a significant amount of water for use during the growing DC_Great Lakes Interdrain_May16_MLD.indd season. Photos courtesy of transformingdrainage.com. 1912 W McPherson Hwy, Clyde, OH 43410 419-547-2379 sales@bowersglid.com www.greatlakesinterdrain.com 1 2016-03-30 11:33 AM will quickly become an outdated practice. “There’s not only the environmental impact of nutrient loading to consider,” he says, “there’s also a lot of change in how we can best use that drainage water whether that’s subsurface irrigation or other purposes.” One of the researchers leading the way on drainage water management is Dr. Jane Frankenberger, a professor at Purdue University. In conjunction with 14 other researchers, she’s helping to evaluate the full impact of three major practices. She says they are looking at the use of saturated buffers, although more for their potential ability in reducing nitrogen losses than their impact on phosphorus. They are also closely investigating how controlled drainage will help nutrient losses and how the latest practice of drainage water recycling could improve things further. While water recycling practices seem new, the concept is actually rather old. “The concept has been around for a long time but there is hardly anyone who has implemented it,” she says. “It was probably first done more than 30 years ago but what’s new DC_Hollanddrain_Nov17_CSA.indd [now] is, we are actively promoting it and researching it.” Of course, taking land out of production for a drainage water collection pond is a bit of a mental hurdle for many farmers. Cost is undoubtedly a major barrier in adoption of water recycling practices Frankenberger explains. That’s why it is important to her that researchers continue the work they’ve started on trying to evaluate the economic impacts. “Having water during the growing season can benefit the crops. If offers more benefits than most other practices,” she assures. “We are trying to get at how much benefit versus how much cost, so we can talk about the profitability, but we won’t have those numbers for another couple of years.” Until conclusive evidence that drainage water recycling pays does emerge, King believes the best advice tile drainage contractors can offer farmers is to make sure their new tile installations can accommodate water management practices down the road. DC 1 2017-10-10 8:44 AM NOVEMBER 2017 | DRAINAGE CONTRACTOR 29